Optical fiber ribbons, which are generally rectangular in cross-section, comprise a plurality of essentially parallel light waveguides encased in a ribbonizing material, normally a plastic. An advantage of an optical cable utilizing light waveguide ribbons is that the cable is thought by some to be easier to splice, and individual light waveguides can be located by the position in a ribbon.
Optical ribbon cables utilizing stacks of optical fiber ribbons have been proposed. Such cables have compartments holding a plurality of such ribbons where the cross-section of a compartment is much greater than the cross-section of the enclosed ribbons. The open space within compartments takes up a significant amount of the cable volume. This prevents such designs from being used for truly high fiber density optical cables.